OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Flexible Differentially Private Vertical Federated Learning with Adaptive Feature Embeddings
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2023
Year: 2023

The emergence of vertical federated learning (VFL) has stimulated concerns about the imperfection in privacy protection, as shared feature embeddings may reveal sensitive information under privacy attacks. This paper studies the delicate equilibrium between data privacy and task utility goals of VFL under differential privacy (DP). To address the generality issue of prior arts, this paper advocates a flexible and generic approach that decouples the two goals and addresses them successively. Specifically, we initially derive a rigorous privacy guarantee by applying norm clipping on shared feature embeddings, which is applicable across various datasets and models. Subsequently, we demonstrate that task utility can be optimized via adaptive adjustments on the scale and distribution of feature embeddings in an accuracy-appreciative way, without compromising established DP mechanisms. We concretize our observation into the proposed VFL-AFE framework, which exhibits effectiveness against privacy attacks and the capacity to retain favorable task utility, as substantiated by extensive experiments.
Scaling Survival Analysis in Healthcare with Federated Survival Forests: A Comparative Study on Heart Failure and Breast Cancer Genomics
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Survival analysis is a fundamental tool in medicine, modeling the time until an event of interest occurs in a population. However, in real-world applications, survival data are often incomplete, censored, distributed, and confidential, especially in healthcare settings where privacy is critical. The scarcity of data can severely limit the scalability of survival models to distributed applications that rely on large data pools. Federated learning is a promising technique that enables machine learning models to be trained on multiple datasets without compromising user privacy, making it particularly well-suited for addressing the challenges of survival data and large-scale survival applications. Despite significant developments in federated learning for classification and regression, many directions remain unexplored in the context of survival analysis. In this work, we propose an extension of the Federated Survival Forest algorithm, called FedSurF++. This federated ensemble method constructs random survival forests in heterogeneous federations. Specifically, we investigate several new tree sampling methods from client forests and compare the results with state-of-the-art survival models based on neural networks. The key advantage of FedSurF++ is its ability to achieve comparable performance to existing methods while requiring only a single communication round to complete. The extensive empirical investigation results in a significant improvement from the algorithmic and privacy preservation perspectives, making the original FedSurF algorithm more efficient, robust, and private. We also present results on two real-world datasets demonstrating the success of FedSurF++ in real-world healthcare studies. Our results underscore the potential of FedSurF++ to improve the scalability and effectiveness of survival analysis in distributed settings while preserving user privacy.
A large language model-assisted education tool to provide feedback on open-ended responses
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2023
Year: 2023

Open-ended questions are a favored tool among instructors for assessing student understanding and encouraging critical exploration of course material. Providing feedback for such responses is a time-consuming task that can lead to overwhelmed instructors and decreased feedback quality. Many instructors resort to simpler question formats, like multiple-choice questions, which provide immediate feedback but at the expense of personalized and insightful comments. Here, we present a tool that uses large language models (LLMs), guided by instructor-defined criteria, to automate responses to open-ended questions. Our tool delivers rapid personalized feedback, enabling students to quickly test their knowledge and identify areas for improvement. We provide open-source reference implementations both as a web application and as a Jupyter Notebook widget that can be used with instructional coding or math notebooks. With instructor guidance, LLMs hold promise to enhance student learning outcomes and elevate instructional methodologies.
AI Literature Review Suite
Venue: arXiv cs.DL 2023
Year: 2023

The process of conducting literature reviews is often time-consuming and labor-intensive. To streamline this process, I present an AI Literature Review Suite that integrates several functionalities to provide a comprehensive literature review. This tool leverages the power of open access science, large language models (LLMs) and natural language processing to enable the searching, downloading, and organizing of PDF files, as well as extracting content from articles. Semantic search queries are used for data retrieval, while text embeddings and summarization using LLMs present succinct literature reviews. Interaction with PDFs is enhanced through a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI). The suite also features integrated programs for bibliographic organization, interaction and query, and literature review summaries. This tool presents a robust solution to automate and optimize the process of literature review in academic and industrial research.
Fast and Accurate Reduced-Order Modeling of a MOOSE-based Additive Manufacturing Model with Operator Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

One predominant challenge in additive manufacturing (AM) is to achieve specific material properties by manipulating manufacturing process parameters during the runtime. Such manipulation tends to increase the computational load imposed on existing simulation tools employed in AM. The goal of the present work is to construct a fast and accurate reduced-order model (ROM) for an AM model developed within the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework, ultimately reducing the time/cost of AM control and optimization processes. Our adoption of the operator learning (OL) approach enabled us to learn a family of differential equations produced by altering process variables in the laser's Gaussian point heat source. More specifically, we used the Fourier neural operator (FNO) and deep operator network (DeepONet) to develop ROMs for time-dependent responses. Furthermore, we benchmarked the performance of these OL methods against a conventional deep neural network (DNN)-based ROM. Ultimately, we found that OL methods offer comparable performance and, in terms of accuracy and generalizability, even outperform DNN at predicting scalar model responses. The DNN-based ROM afforded the fastest training time. Furthermore, all the ROMs were faster than the original MOOSE model yet still provided accurate predictions. FNO had a smaller mean prediction error than DeepONet, with a larger variance for time-dependent responses. Unlike DNN, both FNO and DeepONet were able to simulate time series data without the need for dimensionality reduction techniques. The present work can help facilitate the AM optimization process by enabling faster execution of simulation tools while still preserving evaluation accuracy.
Improving Probabilistic Bisimulation for MDPs Using Machine Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LO 2023
Year: 2023

The utilization of model checking has been suggested as a formal verification technique for analyzing critical systems. However, the primary challenge in applying to complex systems is state space explosion problem. To address this issue, bisimulation minimization has emerged as a prominent method for reducing the number of states in a labeled transition system, aiming to overcome the difficulties associated with the state space explosion problem. In the case of systems exhibiting stochastic behaviors, probabilistic bisimulation is employed to minimize a given model, obtaining its equivalent form with fewer states. Recently, various techniques have been introduced to decrease the time complexity of the iterative methods used to compute probabilistic bisimulation for stochastic systems that display nondeterministic behaviors. In this paper, we propose a new technique to partition the state space of a given probabilistic model to its bisimulation classes. This technique uses the PRISM program of a given model and constructs some small versions of the model to train a classifier. It then applies machine learning classification techniques to approximate the related partition. The resulting partition is used as an initial one for the standard bisimulation technique in order to reduce the running time of the method. The experimental results show that the approach can decrease significantly the running time compared to state-of-the-art tools.
Evaluating ChatGPT and GPT-4 for Visual Programming
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Generative AI and large language models have the potential to drastically improve the landscape of computing education by automatically generating personalized feedback and content. Recent works have studied the capabilities of these models for different programming education scenarios; however, these works considered only text-based programming, in particular, Python programming. Consequently, they leave open the question of how well these models would perform in visual programming domains popularly used for K-8 programming education. The main research question we study is: Do state-of-the-art generative models show advanced capabilities in visual programming on par with their capabilities in text-based Python programming? In our work, we evaluate two models, ChatGPT (based on GPT-3.5) and GPT-4, in visual programming domains for various scenarios and assess performance using expert-based annotations. In particular, we base our evaluation using reference tasks from the domains of Hour of Code: Maze Challenge by Code-dot-org and Karel. Our results show that these models perform poorly and struggle to combine spatial, logical, and programming skills crucial for visual programming. These results also provide exciting directions for future work on developing techniques to improve the performance of generative models in visual programming.
Gated Driver Attention Predictor
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Driver attention prediction implies the intention understanding of where the driver intends to go and what object the driver concerned about, which commonly provides a driving task-guided traffic scene understanding. Some recent works explore driver attention prediction in critical or accident scenarios and find a positive role in helping accident prediction, while the promotion ability is constrained by the prediction accuracy of driver attention maps. In this work, we explore the network connection gating mechanism for driver attention prediction (Gate-DAP). Gate-DAP aims to learn the importance of different spatial, temporal, and modality information in driving scenarios with various road types, occasions, and light and weather conditions. The network connection gating in Gate-DAP consists of a spatial encoding network gating, long-short-term memory network gating, and information type gating modules. Each connection gating operation is plug-and-play and can be flexibly assembled, which makes the architecture of Gate-DAP transparent for evaluating different spatial, temporal, and information types for driver attention prediction. Evaluations on DADA-2000 and BDDA datasets verify the superiority of the proposed method with the comparison with state-of-the-art approaches. The code is available on https://github.com/JWFangit/Gate-DAP.
Exploring the Role of Explainability in AI-Assisted Embryo Selection
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

In Vitro Fertilization is among the most widespread treatments for infertility. One of its main challenges is the evaluation and selection of embryo for implantation, a process with large inter- and intra-clinician variability. Deep learning based methods are gaining attention, but their opaque nature compromises their acceptance in the clinical context, where transparency in the decision making is key. In this paper we analyze the current work in the explainability of AI-assisted embryo analysis models, identifying the limitations. We also discuss how these models could be integrated in the clinical context as decision support systems, considering the needs of clinicians and patients. Finally, we propose guidelines for the sake of increasing interpretability and trustworthiness, pushing this technology forward towards established clinical practice.
Survey on Computer Vision Techniques for Internet-of-Things Devices
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Deep neural networks (DNNs) are state-of-the-art techniques for solving most computer vision problems. DNNs require billions of parameters and operations to achieve state-of-the-art results. This requirement makes DNNs extremely compute, memory, and energy-hungry, and consequently difficult to deploy on small battery-powered Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices with limited computing resources. Deployment of DNNs on Internet-of-Things devices, such as traffic cameras, can improve public safety by enabling applications such as automatic accident detection and emergency response.Through this paper, we survey the recent advances in low-power and energy-efficient DNN implementations that improve the deployability of DNNs without significantly sacrificing accuracy. In general, these techniques either reduce the memory requirements, the number of arithmetic operations, or both. The techniques can be divided into three major categories: neural network compression, network architecture search and design, and compiler and graph optimizations. In this paper, we survey both low-power techniques for both convolutional and transformer DNNs, and summarize the advantages, disadvantages, and open research problems.
Model Checking Time Window Temporal Logic for Hyperproperties
Venue: arXiv cs.LO 2023
Year: 2023

Hyperproperties extend trace properties to express properties of sets of traces, and they are increasingly popular in specifying various security and performance-related properties in domains such as cyber-physical systems, smart grids, and automotive. This paper introduces a model checking algorithm for a new formalism, HyperTWTL, which extends Time Window Temporal Logic (TWTL) -- a domain-specific formal specification language for robotics, by allowing explicit and simultaneous quantification over multiple execution traces. We present HyperTWTL with both \emph{synchronous} and \emph{asynchronous} semantics, based on the alignment of the timestamps in the traces. Consequently, we demonstrate the application of HyperTWTL in formalizing important information-flow security policies and concurrency for robotics applications. Finally, we propose a model checking algorithm for verifying fragments of HyperTWTL by reducing the problem to a TWTL model checking problem.
Is GPT-4 a reliable rater? Evaluating Consistency in GPT-4 Text Ratings
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2023
Year: 2023

This study investigates the consistency of feedback ratings generated by OpenAI's GPT-4, a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence language model, across multiple iterations, time spans and stylistic variations. The model rated responses to tasks within the Higher Education (HE) subject domain of macroeconomics in terms of their content and style. Statistical analysis was conducted in order to learn more about the interrater reliability, consistency of the ratings across iterations and the correlation between ratings in terms of content and style. The results revealed a high interrater reliability with ICC scores ranging between 0.94 and 0.99 for different timespans, suggesting that GPT-4 is capable of generating consistent ratings across repetitions with a clear prompt. Style and content ratings show a high correlation of 0.87. When applying a non-adequate style the average content ratings remained constant, while style ratings decreased, which indicates that the large language model (LLM) effectively distinguishes between these two criteria during evaluation. The prompt used in this study is furthermore presented and explained. Further research is necessary to assess the robustness and reliability of AI models in various use cases.
IoT Based Smart Attendance System Using Rfid: A Systematic Literature Review
Venue: arXiv cs.OH 2023
Year: 2023

The use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is ubiquitous in a number of businesses and sectors, including retail sales, smart cities, agriculture, and transportation. Additionally, educational institutions have started using RFID to track student attendance, combining this technology with Google Sheets and the Internet of Things (IoT) to build a real-time attendance tracking system. For a thorough examination of the creation of a student attendance system, this paper includes a systematic literature evaluation of 21 major research published on IoT based attendance systems employing RFID. This RFID-based attendance system enables automation, eliminating several problems connected with the manual process, such as time wasting, proxies, and the possibility of losing the attendance sheet, in contrast to the traditional attendance system, which depends on manual signatures. By creating a system that automatically registers students' attendance by merely flashing their student cards at the RFID reader, all the aforementioned difficulties may be successfully addressed. This automated method guarantees attendance monitoring accuracy and dependability while also saving time. This paper's conclusion highlights the significant advantages of implementing an IoT-based attendance system based on RFID technology. The suggested solution provides a trustworthy, efficient, and secure alternative to manual attendance techniques, successfully addressing their shortcomings. This paper offers helpful insights for institutions looking to create a cutting-edge attendance system that increases student involvement and academic achievement by looking at guiding principles, best practices, and the successful resolution of difficulties.
Comments on "A Linear Time Algorithm for the Optimal Discrete IRS Beamforming"
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2023
Year: 2023

The problem of optimizing discrete phases in a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) to maximize the received power at a user equipment is addressed. Comments on [1] are provided. Updated necessary and sufficient conditions for its Lemma 1 are given. Consequently, an updated Algorithm 1 is provided with full specification. Simulation results with improved performance over the implementation of Algorithm 1 are provided. New versions of the algorithm are given that are proven to achieve convergence in N or fewer steps, where N is the number of the elements in the reconfigurable intelligent surface. This is in contrast with KN or 2N number of steps on the average specified for Algorithm 1 in [1], where K is the number of discrete phases. As a result, for a discrete-phase RIS, the techniques presented here achieve the optimum received power in the smallest number of steps published in the literature.
TIPICAL -- Type Inference for Python In Critical Accuracy Level
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2023
Year: 2023

Type inference methods based on deep learning are becoming increasingly popular as they aim to compensate for the drawbacks of static and dynamic analysis approaches, such as high uncertainty. However, their practical application is still debatable due to several intrinsic issues such as code from different software domains will involve data types that are unknown to the type inference system. In order to overcome these problems and gain high-confidence predictions, we thus present TIPICAL, a method that combines deep similarity learning with novelty detection. We show that our method can better predict data types in high confidence by successfully filtering out unknown and inaccurate predicted data types and achieving higher F1 scores to the state-of-the-art type inference method Type4Py. Additionally, we investigate how different software domains and data type frequencies may affect the results of our method.
Metaverse for Industry 5.0 in NextG Communications: Potential Applications and Future Challenges
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2023
Year: 2023

With the advent of new technologies and endeavors for automation in almost all day-to-day activities, the recent discussions on the metaverse life have a greater expectation. Furthermore, we are in the era of the fifth industrial revolution, where machines and humans collaborate to maximize productivity with the effective utilization of human intelligence and other resources. Hence, Industry 5.0 in the metaverse may have tremendous technological integration for a more immersive experience and enhanced communication.These technological amalgamations are suitable for the present environment and entirely different from the previous perception of virtual technologies. This work presents a comprehensive review of the applications of the metaverse in Industry 5.0 (so-called industrial metaverse). In particular, we first provide a preliminary to the metaverse and industry 5.0 and discuss key enabling technologies of the industrial metaverse, including virtual and augmented reality, 3D modeling, artificial intelligence, edge computing, digital twin, blockchain, and 6G communication networks. This work then explores diverse metaverse applications in Industry 5.0 vertical domains like Society 5.0, agriculture, supply chain management, healthcare, education, and transportation. A number of research projects are presented to showcase the conceptualization and implementation of the industrial metaverse. Furthermore, various challenges in realizing the industrial metaverse, feasible solutions, and future directions for further research have been presented.
Fair Models in Credit: Intersectional Discrimination and the Amplification of Inequity
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2023
Year: 2023

The increasing usage of new data sources and machine learning (ML) technology in credit modeling raises concerns with regards to potentially unfair decision-making that rely on protected characteristics (e.g., race, sex, age) or other socio-economic and demographic data. The authors demonstrate the impact of such algorithmic bias in the microfinance context. Difficulties in assessing credit are disproportionately experienced among vulnerable groups, however, very little is known about inequities in credit allocation between groups defined, not only by single, but by multiple and intersecting social categories. Drawing from the intersectionality paradigm, the study examines intersectional horizontal inequities in credit access by gender, age, marital status, single parent status and number of children. This paper utilizes data from the Spanish microfinance market as its context to demonstrate how pluralistic realities and intersectional identities can shape patterns of credit allocation when using automated decision-making systems. With ML technology being oblivious to societal good or bad, we find that a more thorough examination of intersectionality can enhance the algorithmic fairness lens to more authentically empower action for equitable outcomes and present a fairer path forward. We demonstrate that while on a high-level, fairness may exist superficially, unfairness can exacerbate at lower levels given combinatorial effects; in other words, the core fairness problem may be more complicated than current literature demonstrates. We find that in addition to legally protected characteristics, sensitive attributes such as single parent status and number of children can result in imbalanced harm. We discuss the implications of these findings for the financial services industry.